June, 2011

A subclass of the faulty appeal to authority. It refers to the fallacy of saying that something must be true simply because an expert says it is. However, even experts are occasionally mistaken, so their opinions should not be taken as unquestionable. This is especially evident in cases where other experts in the field disagree. Just remember “For every expect, there is an equal and...

It is a faulty appeal to authority when someone argues that a claim must be true simply because someone (or a group of people) say so. The thing to remember about all appeals to authority is that an argument should really be evaluated on its internal merit, not on the person making it. The following belongs to this category: Appeal to many (also known as appeal to the majority) Appeal to the one...

A fallacy of presumption is an argument that is faulty because it contains one or more unproven or unfounded assumptions. There are many fallacies in this category: Sweeping generalization Hasty generalization Bifurcation Begging the question Question-begging epithet Complex question “No true Scotsman” Special pleading False analogy False cause Slippery...

This is committed when a person appeals to something or someone that is not really relevant to the claim under investigation. Several fallacies fall under this category: Appeal to emotion Appeal to pity Appeal to fear Appeal to mob Appeal to...

This is a subcategory of the fallacy of ambiguity and it’s also known as the Bait-and-Switch. This is committed when a person attributes a concrete and often personal characteristic to a conceptual abstraction. Reification is perfectly acceptable in poetry, but should not be used in logical argumentation because it is ambiguous and can obscure important issues. Evolutionists frequently commit...